21 Jun 2010

The summer solstice occurred today at 7:28 AM EDT. From Wikipedia..."The name is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, the apparent movement of the Sun's path north or south comes to a stop before reversing direction." For the United States, the June solstice marks the beginning of summer. It also means that today will be the longest day in the year - a cruel thing to happen on a Monday.

My weekend was a lot of fun. Saturday was great; I got a lot done. Yard sales, lawns mowed, scrapbook pages completed, pool time...

I was at one yard sale talking to a group of kids (early twentysomethings), one of whom had a collection of (undoubtedly pilfered) street signs he was willing to sell. I used to have one of the I-5 signs from Southern California in my garage I once ripped off from an abandoned section of road near Camp Pendleton - I'm really sorry it got sold or given away when my mother moved to New Hampshire when she retired. I'd like to have that sign again, as much as I drove that route when I was in the Marines. (Hey, you can buy them new here!) Anyway, for some reason before I drove off I asked on a whim, "Have you guys ever heard of the Bunnyman Bridge?" As it turned out they were trying to find the location the night before. So we talked about some of the various Mysteries of Fairfax County.

They told me about the Remey Tomb/Crypt in the woods behind the Pohick Church, about ten minutes from where I live. I've lived here since 1987 and I've never heard of it! Read this Fairfax Underground site about it - it's pretty interesting. I may have to go check out what's left above the ground...

I bought a paperback book from the kids, which I read yesterday: "Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John?: Music's Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed" by Gavin Edwards. I like reading the back stories about pop songs and lyrics; I once read an entire book about "Louie, Louie." Of course there was a section on one of the great mysteries of pop music: Who is Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" written about? Based on other articles I read I had always supposed this was about Warren Beatty who was famously vain, but surprisingly, no. Read that section here. (And to answer the question posed by the book's title, Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin confirmed that the "tiny dancer" of the song is in fact poetic license of a style of 1970's hippie Southern California girls, who were so unlike the English types he was used to.)

The book also confirmed what I suspected: Pete Townshend of the Who occasionally sliced open his hand doing those windmill guitar strokes, as well as occasionally ripping off his fingernails and impaling his hand on a whammy bar... got blood all over the pick, making it hard to play. Ew.

Seriously, how lame is the Soccer World Cup? One word: vuvuzelas.

I am learning an interesting Bela Bartok piano piece, a little Hungarian song. It's an odd piece, with unintuitive pauses and runs. It's in C major, but is based on a G major chord so it really has a bright, G major sound. The F sharp in the G major scale is never used, so it's in C. Clever Bela Bartok...

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